


So stay calm, it won't be long

by EponineTheStrange (gallifreyandglowclouds)



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyandglowclouds/pseuds/EponineTheStrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Karen reads the Afterword to Matt on the bench in front of everyone, (the events leading up to that), (matt kissing her cheek after it)</p>
            </blockquote>





	So stay calm, it won't be long

On a purely rational level, there’s no reason why this day should be so charged. Karen knows that they aren’t shooting her and Arthur’s last episode until after they’re done with this one, so she shouldn’t be standing in Central Park on the verge of tears holding this piece of paper. 

Matt’s looking up at her expectantly, and she knows that she has to read quietly, because of the fans waiting all around them, and that she has to get it just right because this is how they’re capturing the Doctor’s reaction to her departure. 

She fights back the tears and starts to read, and the production team rolls the camera. 

“Hello, old friend. And here we are, on the last page.”

It’s Amy talking to the Doctor as much as it’s Karen talking to Matt, because this is the almost-close of a major chapter of her life where she’s made greater friends and had greater adventures than she’d ever thought possible. Yes, she’s stepping away from the UK and going to make a great career as a movie star in America, but the memories that she will treasure will come from the past three years, and all the regret about leaving she’s been feeling since December coalesces into this one moment. 

Matt is dead focused on the book he holds in his hands, and it’s his ability to keep on-task at such a moment of emotion that makes her incredibly envious of him right now. 

There’s a movie playing in Karen’s head, one that includes badger puppets, press calls, staying up until three in the morning learning lines and eating Indian food and being ridiculous. His hand wrapped around her waist at all those press calls, pulling her to him, and the pulling in her heart that yearns for him but that she wouldn’t for the longest time let out until that one blissful night in Spain where she found on how precisely his lips felt on her skin. It’s this thing-but-not-a-thing that has been bouncing between the two of them for too long and should really be solidified. 

She doesn’t know if they’ll ever get there though. 

“Tell her this is the story of Amelia Pond, and this is how it ends.” 

The director calls cut and everyone applauds. Karen can feel her stomach sink. Matt gets up and walks towards her, and then wraps her in a hug. “You were brilliant Kaz, just brilliant.” His voice hitches a little at the end, and he presses a kiss to her cheek. 

“Thanks,” she whispers back, and hugs him tighter. 

* * *

No one goes out that night, which is different from the previous nights they had spent in Manhattan. She sits on her bed and stares at the wall and debates what to do now. 

Someone knocks on her door shortly before nine in the evening, and its Matt with pizza. Her stomach grumbles audibly when she smells it. 

He enters her hotel room wordlessly, and he places the pizza box on her bed. She sits on one side and he on the other, and they watch television and eat their pizza in silence. The distance between them feels too far, and she wants to reach out and touch him or something.

She does, and gently places a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay, Kaz,” he says, clicking off the TV and looking at her. “It’s not over yet.” 

She nods, and then says, “But you know that I’m leaving. And I don’t think that we’ve figured out what that means for… us.” 

“It probably means that I’m coming to visit you in Alabama and Los Angeles, and that we’re going to end spending time together somehow while you’re filming Not Another Happy Ending.” He shrugs. “I want to be with you, Kaz. Do you want to be with me?” 

She nods. “Yeah, yeah, I do.” 

“Good. Then we’ll figure it out.” He leans in and they kiss. 

It’ll be fine. They’ll be fine. It might just take a while for her to start believing that. 


End file.
